Why Jesse Plemons Did Not Enjoy His Star Wars Audition

Back in the days when Star Wars: The Force Awakens was still referred to as Star Wars: Episode VII myriad young Hollywood actors were linked to roles in the space opera. With Breaking Bad having just come to an end, and Jesse Plemons having excelled as Todd Alquist in the shows final two seasons, it was no surprise that he was heavily linked to a part. But Plemons has come out and insisted that he was never actually close to getting a role in The Force Awakens, blaming the rumor mill for exagerating the situation, which ultimately became very, very annoying.

Jesse Plemons was asked about almost being cast in Star Wars: The Force Awakens by Vulture as he promoted Other People, the drama comedy that opened up the Sundance Film Festival last month. Plemons jumped at the opportunity to set the record straight, insisting that any claims he came close to being cast in the blockbuster were extremely wide of the mark. In fact, he admitted that after he went in to read for the film, speculation amassed so feverishly that his own friends and family assumed he’d already been cast. Plemons explained that at the time the rumors started to circulate he was going to appear in Star Wars: The Force Awakenshe’d only auditioned once and hadn’t even met J.J. Abrams yet. He explained:

It’s supportive. But the thing is, I was never a huge Star Wars fan. I watched them, but not religiously, like a lot of people do. And you don’t get a full script, you get a couple pages of sides with no context. The first two or three days, I just couldn’t get over the image of me holding a lightsaber. I just cracked up every time I thought about it.

And the actor doesn’t really seem at all disappointed that he wasn’t cast. What probably didn’t help Jesse Plemons’ cause is every time that he pictured himself holding a lightsaber he couldn’t help but instantly break down in hysterics. Still, during the same interview with, he insisted that the entire process was still a positive one.

At this point we’re still really none the wiser about theStar Wars: The Force Awakens role Jesse Plemons was in the running for. I’m going to assume that it was for Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren, as he has a similar evil drawl and statuesque presence to the Girls actor, but it could also have been for the villainous General Hux.

Meanwhile, despite being overlooked for the film, Jesse Plemons’ career continues to go from strength to strength, as he not only worked on Black Mass and Bridge Of Spies in 2015, but he’s currently filming Doug Liman’s Mena opposite Tom Cruise and Domhnall Gleeson.